Tetramicra canaliculata (Aubl.) Urb.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Epiphytic or terrestrial, glabrous herb to 53 cm tall; roots produced from base of erect stems, gray and 1-2 mm thick when aerial, white and 2-4 mm thick when subterranean; stems slightly thickened, 4-25 mm long, produced from elongate rhizomes commonly above the soil surface on stilts of aerial roots. Leaves several, 1-21 cm long, thick, stiff, narrowly subcylindrical. Flowers few, in racemes or rarely panicles from slender scapes to 50 cm long; floral bracts thin, ovate, 2-3 mm long; sepals and petals greenish brown, sometimes spotted, spreading. Sepals oblonglanceolate to elliptic-obovate, acute, 7-11 x 2-5 mm , the lateral sepals slightly larger than the dorsal; petals elliptic to oblanceolate, acute to obtuse, 6-9 mm long, 1-3 mm wide; lip rose-colored, prominently trilobed, 11-15 mm long; lateral lobes sometimes with dark veins, broadly elliptic, rounded, 6-8 x 4-7 mm; midlobe with dark veins and yellowish at the middle, obovate, 8-12 x 4-9 mm; column stout, apically expanded and conspicuously winged, ca. 6 mm long; pollinia of 4 very unequal-sized pairs; pedicellate ovary filiform, 12-18 mm long. Capsule ellipsoidal, ca. 15 mm long.
Distribution and Ecology - Locally common in exposed dry or moist sites. Maria Bluff (A4060). Also reported from St. Croix, St. Thomas, Little St. James, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, and George Dog; Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Lesser Antilles, and Rorida.
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Discussion
Cymbidium rigidum Willd., Sp. PL 4: 106. 1805. Tetramicra rigida (Willd.) Lindl., Gen. Sp. Orch. PL 119. 1831.
Cyrtopodium elegans Ham., Prodr. PL Ind. Occid. 53. 1825. Tetramicra elegans (Ham.) Cogn. in Urb., Symb. Ant. 6: 548. 1910.
Epidendrum subaequale Eggers, Fl. St. Croix 113. 1879.